Saturday, December 19, 2009

The SPDIF issue is fixed - and I'm a dumbass.

Put in a BD and started up PowerDVD DX (had successfully played other BDs). It got stuck "Loading" so I went back to the menu. While poking around in settings I found the audio setting for output to SPDIF. After setting that I clicked on the update icon and it downloaded & installed, then rebooted. Now I can't play any BDs in PowerDVD DX. And the SPDIF option in PowerDVD DX settings is no longer available - it just has "Default" as the only option. So, I finally went to the Sounds control panel app and set the SPDIF dongle to be the default audio device like I should have right off the bat but no, I'm a dumbass. PowerDVD DX plays DVDs and now I get DolbyDigital & DTS to the AVR. It just no longer plays BDs.

Friday, December 18, 2009

More from Dell support on the PowerDVD DX SPDIF issue:

From Dell:

I do understand and apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.

Marc, I would have loved to assist you with the issue, however, being a hardware technician I have limited expertise on software issues. Dell hardware technical support is only available for hardware covered under Dell's limited warranty. That's why we created the specially trained group of technicians who staff our fee based Solution Station service.

I suggest you to get in touch with Dell Solution Station. Dell Solution Station offers support to assist you with quick and easy answers to all your questions about non-Dell branded hardware,software/virus & spyware related issues for a nominal fee.

My Response:

Yes. I'm just not happy about having to pay more money to Dell to get a product that Dell sold me to work as Dell advertised. I'm not happy at all about that.

From your e-mail I understand that as you use the PowerDVD software, you only get pro-logic output but not 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS. I sincerely apologize for all the inconvenience caused to you, however please be assured, I will personally look into the matter and resolve it to the best of your satisfaction.

Marc, I would like to update that the Dell supplied OEM version of the PowerDVD software only provides a 2 channel analog output. It will also use S/PDIF (digital) output IF the disk supports it (has a DD or DTS digital audio track). S/PDIF is not full uncompressed HD Audio. Further, in order to get Full Uncompressed HD Audio, you'll need the full version of PowerDVD - you won't be using S/PDIF (which doesn't have the throughput required for HD Audio) - you will be using 5.1 or 7.1 analog audio - and you will need a sound card or codec capable of outputting uncompressed multi-channel analog HD audio.

I would also like to update that in case you need support regarding the S/PDIF, in order to resolve the issue at the earliest, we need to check the software settings and for the complete resolution to this issue we need to perform advance Software troubleshooting and for the same we have a Department at Dell called Dell Solution Station which is a paid support.

My response:

My setup is Zino USB -> SPDIF AVR and I understand the limitations to stereo PCM or DolbyDigital 5.1 or DTS 5.1. I'm under the impression that Blu-ray are required to include DolbyDigital 5.1 and/or DTS 5.1 tracks. I get pro-logic for all of my Blu-ray disks *and* all of my DVDs that I know for fact provide DolbyDigital 5.1 and/or DTS 5.1 tracks.

I do realize that the SPDIF hardware is 3rd party and y'all are not responsible for it. However, you sold me the PowerDVD DX software which is supposed to support this feature. I'm not too keen on paying you guys more money to get this working. I just gave y'all $560 for this machine and that's quite enough for now.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Setup V

Note: still using factory-installed ATI drivers.

HDhomerun setup went w/o a hitch. The W7MC program guide has quite a few channels that dont' tune in - kind of a pain to figure out which ones. Will have to spend some time playing with that to figure out if my antenna is lacking or there are other problems. Will need to just remove non-tuning channels from the guide (if possible).

Notice that when W7MC is windowed & tuned to a live station, browsing seems to cause hickups in playback audio/video. Picture quality is nice.

Checked power policy: min proc @ 5%, max at 100%

Installed CoreTemp. I shut it down and let it sit for about 10 minutes, the powered up and let it sit idle for 5 minutes:

With W7MC windowed & tuned to HDhomerun live TV channel:

And idle about 5 minutes after closing W7MC from the previous measurement:

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Powered up and the scaling was off - had to reduce it from where it was set previously.

Uninstalled McAfee.

Installed Internet TV in W7MC. Tried to watch four different shows and all four failed with "Video not available, try again later". Not an encouraging first experience with this service.

Went through W7MC speaker setup - toslink option didn't work. Still need to figure out why I only get pro-logic out. It is probably a limitation of the PowerDVD Dx software.

Noticed that W7MC had black bars - turns out the TV defaulted back to Auto for screen size. I put it back to Dot by Dot, adjusted CCC overscan back to where it was before and now it's all okay. Need to figure out how to get that setting to stick on the TV, or, when I have the Harmony setup, set that in a macro when selecting the Zino as source.

It auto-started WMC in a window, changed to full screen, Express setup.

Started BD - kind of slow loading and getting to the first disc screen.

Audio is coming through SPDIF as Pro-Logic. Need to figure out how to get DolbyDigital/DTS through.

Video looks good. Not sure if it looks as good as the PS3 but still looks good.

Installed Netflix in WMC. The interface seems zippy enough - just a little delay loading cover art but really no slower than the PS3. Netflix interface in WMC is a lot slicker than in PS3.

Legend of the Seeker Episode 1 looks like utter crap - major pixelation. Windowed it still looks like crap. Ran Task Manager performance meter: CPU was 30-75%, avg 50% windowed and I think about the same full-screen.

Skipped "Setup Security" for McAfee (going to use Microsoft Antivirus).

Create recovery disc using Dell DataSafe. Can choose disc or USB drive. Chose disc - says to insert DVD or BD. Is this drive a BD burner? Don't have any blank BDs so using DVD - takes about 4.3GB and fits on one disc.

When disc spins up it generates a little bit of white noise - it's low but audible at sofa 12' away.

At 66% complete (verifying disc) the auto-play dialog popped up and progress stopped. Killed the dialog and it's still just sitting there - been 5 minutes so far. Sometimes the disc generates more audible, periodic noise but it dies off. It looks to be stuck.